December 14, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



516 



Fossil of the Figured Kind, found in Malta, and known by the 

 name of St. Paul's Bastoons Letters, page 120 ;" " On the 

 Troehites," " On Mushrooms," " On the Darting of Spiders," 

 " On the Seeds of Plants," and " On the Specific Differences of 

 Plants." 



On the death of the mother of his friend, the Dowager Lady 

 Willughby, and the removal of his sons from under Mr. Ray's 

 tuition, he retired some time in the year 1676 to Sutton Cold- 

 field, about four miles distant from Middleton Hall, where he 

 remained till Michaelmas 1677. He then made a second 

 removal to Falkborne Hall, near Black Notley, at which last 

 place he built a house, and finally settled June 24th, 1679. 



Mr. Willughby's "Iethyology" remaining yet unpublished, 

 Mr. Ray in 1684 arranged the materials, which had been left 

 in a very imperfect and undigested state. He wrote the two 

 first books himself, revised, methodised, and enlarged the 

 whole, and sent it to the Royal Society, the members of which 

 contributed to furnish the plates, and by the assistance of 

 Bishop Fell it was printed at Oxford, the Royal Society being 

 at the whole expense. It came out under the following title : 

 " Francisci Willughbeii, Armig. de Historia Pisoium, Libri 

 quatuor, jussu et snmptu S. Ray. Lond. edifci. Totum opus 

 recognovit, coaptavit, supplevit, librum etiam primum et se- 

 cundum integros adjecit J. Rains." Oxon. 1686. 



Preparatory to his great work, which he intended to arrange 

 systematically, he put forth in 1682 his " Methodus Plant- 

 arum," enlarged and improved from the synoptical tables 

 which he had printed in Bishop Wilkins's " Real Character " 

 in 1668. It bears the following title : " Methodus Plantarum 

 nova brevitatis et perspicuitatis causa synoptice in tabulis 

 exhibit a." 



Mr. Ray informs us that it was at the persuasion of his 

 friend Mr. Willughby that he began to collect materials with a 

 view to a general history of plants ; but that after the Iobs of 

 his friend in 1672 he relaxed, and on hearing that Dr. Morrison 

 was employed on a similar design, from which considerable 

 expectations were formed, at length gave up his purpose. On 

 the decease of Dr. Morrison in 1683, who left the much greater 

 part of his work unfinished, by the persuasion of his friends, 

 and particularly of Mr. Hotton, to whom it was dedicated, he 

 resumed his design, and prosecuted the work with vigour. 

 The first volnme was published in the year 1686 under the 

 following title: " Historia Plantarum Generalis : Bpeoies hac- 

 tenus editas aliasque insuper multas noviter inventas et de- 

 soriptas complectens." 



After the first edition of the "Catalogus Plantarum Angliae " 

 was out of print Mr. Ray had been exhorted by his friend Mr. 

 Ralph Johnson to arrange the seoond according to system ; 

 but not having sufficiently elaborated his method at that 

 time he declined it, and it came out in 1677 in the alphabetical 

 order. A third edition being wanted, however, after the publi- 

 cation of the " History of Plants," he meditated throwing it 

 into the systematic form, and in the meantime put forth, in 

 1688, " Fasciculus Stirpinm Britannicarum, post editnm Plan- 

 tarum Anglia3 Catalogum observatarum." Lond. 8°. By this 

 little volnme a considerable accession was made to English 

 botany ; several very rare mountainous or alpine plants from 

 Wales, some scarce ones from Cornwall, sea plants, new Fungi, 

 Mosses, and Grasses made their first appearance in this little 

 catalogue. The " Synopsis," although finished for the press 

 soon after this " Fasciculus," was not published, owing to the 

 delay of the printer, till 1690, when it appeared under this 

 title, " Synopsis methodica Stirpinm Britannicarum." 



To this period Mr. Ray had appeared to the public principally 

 as a naturalist, but he now united to this character that of 

 theologist. It ia needless to Bay that he succeeded in this 

 department, perhaps beyond most of those who had before 

 written on the same subject. His first publication of this 

 kind we are told was originally and in its outlines college 

 exercises only, or commonplaces. These he now wrought up 

 and enlarged into a convenient volnme, and trusted it to the 

 care of his friend, Dr. Tancred Robinson, who procured five 

 hundred copies to be printed under the following title : " The 

 Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation." 

 8°. 1691. 



The favourable acceptance the public gave to the " Demon- 

 stration " encouraged Mr. Ray to publish the next year his 

 "Three Physico-theological Discourses concerning the Primi- 

 tive Chaos and Creation of the World," " The General Deluge, 

 its Causes and Effects," " The Dissolution of the World and 

 Future Conflagration." 



In this year Mr. Ray wrote some " Observations on the 



Planting of Maize instead of Pease," occasioned by a proposal 

 of Sir Richard Bulkley, in which he says that he had found 

 the greatest yield of Pease to be twenty barrels reaped for one 

 sown; whereas, from one grain of Indian Wheat he had cal- 

 culated the produce would be upwards of two thousand grains 

 for one. These observations were printed in the " Phil. 

 Trans.," No. 209. In 1693 he published his " Synopsis me- 

 thodica animalium, quadrupedum, et Serpentini generis." 



In the same year, 1693, Mr. Ray became the editor of a 

 translation of "Dr. Rauwolf's Travels." This physician, who 

 waB the next after Belon whom the love of natural history 

 alone led to travel into the east, spent the years 1573^-5 ia 

 traversing Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt, induced 

 as he tells ua by his desire to behold in the native places the 

 plants of the Greek and Arabian physicians. 



The "Catalogus Stirpinm in exteris Regionibus observata- 

 rum" being out of print, Mr. Ray was induced to give a new 

 edition of it, with such large augmentations as to make it a new 

 work. This is his " Stirpinm Europaaarum extra Britanniaa 

 naecentium Sylloge." About this time Mr. Bay communicated 

 " The Provincial Catalogues of Plants," printed at the end of 

 each county in the edition of " Cambden's Britannia," pub- 

 lished in 1695 by Mr. Gibson. This second edition of the 

 " Synopsis" was printed in 1696. S°. p. 346. Mr. Ray himself 

 had but a small Bhare in the augmentations that were made to 

 this edition. His advancing years and infirmities prevented him 

 from making excursions. His principal auxiliaries are men- 

 tioned in the preface, in which, additional to the names in the 

 former " Synopsis," we meet with those of Mr. Edward Llhwyd, 

 Walter Moyle, Esq., and Mr. William Vernon, Fellow oj 

 St. Peter's College, Cambridge. With this edition of the 

 "Synopsis" was published the " Dissertatio de variis Plantarum 

 Methodis brevis," in which Mr. Ray Bhows that the separation 

 of plantB into classes and genera from the fructification alone 

 must be a very gradual and progressive affair. 



In 1697 he wrote " Some Observations on the Poisonous 

 Effects of a Root Eaten instead of Parsnips," supposed to have 

 been that of the Hemlock, but of which Mr. Ray had some 

 doubt, alleging that it was more probably the Cicutaria vulgaris 

 (Chaarophyllum sylvestre.LiTm). See " Phil. Trans. ," No. 231. 

 In No. 238 he communioated "Remarks on the Poisonous 

 Effects of the (Enanthe crocata," too fatally confirmed by 

 later mistakes of the same kind. 



In the year 1700 Mr. Ray published " A Persuasive to a 

 Holy Life, from the Happiness whioh attends it both in this 

 World and in the World to Come." Lond. 8°. 



So small, however, was the demand for books in botanical 

 science that the London booksellers were unwilling to riBk the 

 printing them, and finally printed at Amsterdam under the 

 care of Dr. Hotton, the botanical professor at Leyden, who 

 supervised the press and procured 1100 copies to be thrown 

 off, appeared under the title of " Methodus Plantarum emendatft 

 et auota : accedit Methodus Graminum, Junoorum, et Cype- 

 rorum specialis." 8°. p. 202. 1703. Dr. Hotton gave a- 

 further sanction to the Bystem of his friend ; he taught it in 

 his lectures to the pupils of that University, and informed 

 Mr. Ray of the good acceptance it met with on the Continent, 

 particularly in Italy. The last of his works published in his 

 lifetime came out in 1704 with the following title : " Historisa 

 Plantarum Tomus tertius, qui est Supplementum dnornm 

 pracedentium." 



Mr. Ray's infirmities and afflictions, painful and grievous as 

 they were, did not prevent him from prosecuting his studies 

 till within about three months before his death, which event 

 took place on January 17th, 1704-5. He died at Blaok Notley, 

 and was buried, as Dr. Derham says, according to his own, 

 desire in the church of that parish ; although the reotor of the 

 parish offered him a place of interment in the chancel of the 

 church, yet he modestly refused it, choosing rather to be 

 buried in the churchyard with his ancestors, where a monument 

 was erected to him at the charge of some of his friends, with, 

 a Latin inscription. 



He had four daughters, three of whom survived him. He 

 left a small legacy to the poor of his own parish, and £5 to 

 Trinity College in Cambridge, to purchase books for the 

 library there. All his collections of natural curiosities he 

 bestowed on his friend and neighbour Mr. Samuel Dale, author 

 of the " Pharmaoology," to whom they were delivered about a 

 week before his death. 



Mr. Ray's posthumous papers were entrusted by his widow 

 to the care of Dr. Derham, who, after publishing the "His- 

 toria Insectorum," selected a number of his letters and printed 



